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An email pitch arrived this week from Argyle Communications, a public relations and brand management firm.

New product launch? Corporate damage control?

No, the private PR firm has been hired, out of public funds, to get more ink for Ontario’s latest consultative panel on rapid transit. And to raise the profile of the panel’s chair (by pitching interviews with her).

At last count, there were 36 panels circulating across the province taking the pulse of the body politic on behalf of Premier Kathleen Wynne. That’s more panelling than you’ll find in a 1970s rec room. It’s also a lot of expensive PR firms on the government payroll.

But if a PR firm’s client insists on repeating itself with contrived consultations, it’s bad for the brand. And public trust.

The last consultation process on public transit was delivered a mere five months ago by Metrolinx, the province’s arm’s length transit agency, after some five years of research and deliberations (aided by another PR firm). The Metrolinx board of directors — made up of the same sort of worthies you’ll find on the new transit panel — recommended that the government raise a slew of taxes to bankroll a $40 billion subway and LRT plan for the next two decades.

When the Metrolinx report failed to gain traction, the Wynne government ordered up a new report to go over the same old ground: A fresh panel to revisit the forgotten panel and produce more politically palatable recommendations. (Fun fact: the vice-chair of the new panel, former Toronto planner Paul Bedford, sat for many years on the Metrolinx board, which should give him a head start retracing his steps.)

This week, helped along by its well-paid PR firm, the panel placed an article in the Star’s Opinions section. But the lecturing, hectoring tone gave the game away:

“In the panel’s view, the public debate is being impeded by a series of misconceptions arising from . . . wishful thinking,” the authors argued.

Perhaps so. But why seek public input if people are so misguided?

“Our hope is that the public will embrace a realistic plan . . . and refuse to be lulled by misconceptions any longer.”

Now that’s an interesting way for the elites to kick off consultations — by kicking the hoi polloi in the head.

While supposedly a citizen’s panel, it is being supported and largely run by the government. Before it poses any more pretend questions, here’s one for the panel to answer:

Are you trying to drum up ideas for Wynne? Or trying to drum Wynne’s ideas into the heads of voters?

To her credit, Wynne has strong convictions about aggressively funding rapid transit. She has said as much during the Liberal leadership, and again as premier (No, Argyle didn’t set up the interviews).

Now she is buying time in hopes of winning broader public support. That’s why she let the Metrolinx report gather dust all summer before ordering a do-over.

Not all of the three dozen panels now underway are such shams. The Open Government task force announced this week seems like a genuine attempt to crowd-source for fresh ideas. But the long list of panels (first compiled by QP Briefing, our sister Torstar publication) looks suspiciously like a strategy to soften up the public for future sacrifices and/or help the government fix political problems. In other words, to inoculate the government against unpopular proposals rather than incubate new ones.

When a premier contracts out policymaking, she risks policy paralysis. When a government relies on panels and focus groups, it takes the path of least resistance.

As a former mediator, Wynne reflexively seeks common ground. But she should stop fetishizing consultations.

The premier proudly announced last month that her Liberal party has a new online suggestion box called, unsurprisingly, Common Ground. Open to the public, the two most popular ideas so far on the Liberal website? Improving conditions for pregnant pigs; and lifting a ban on pitbulls.

Nothing against pigs and pitbulls, but when they emerge as the party’s most pressing priorities, it’s time for a real leader to take the bull by the horns — by showing more political backbone. And vision of her own.

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